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Police have placed a travel ban on executives of a South Korean company that claimed to have discovered a sunken Russian warship after suspicions were raised about the veracity of claims it was laden with £100 billion in gold.

Police are also trying to locate Yu Ji-beom, the head of an affiliated group based in Singapore who set up a cryptocurrency called Donskoi International Exchange, named after the Russian warship, and promoted the search for the wreck.

The discovery of the Dmitrii Donskoi in July at a depth of more than 1,400 feet about one mile off the South Korean island of Ulleungdo intrigued historians and investors around the world.

The Dmitrii Donskoi was discovered in July at a depth of more than 1,400 feet about one mile off the South Korean island of Ulleungdo

Video released of the wreckage showed the extensive damage to the vessel caused in an encounter with Japanese warships in May 1905, along with cannons and deck guns encrusted with marine growth, the anchor and the ship’s wheel.

But the announcement also came with reports that the Dmitrii Donskoi, which was scuttled before it could be captured by the Japanese during the Battle of Tsushima, was carrying the Russian fleet’s funds and went down with 5,500 boxes containing gold bars as well as a separate haul of 200 tons of gold coins. The Shinil Group estimated the gold would have a total value today of £101.3 billion.

Questions were later raised over the scale of the treasure that the company claimed was on board, although investors still flocked to purchase its cryptocurrency, known as Shinil Gold Coin. One estimate suggests that as many as 100,000 investors sank nearly £41 million into the company’s cryptocurrency.

Officials admitted in a press conference in Seoul last week that there was no solid evidence that the ship was carrying anything of value when it sank. It lowered its total estimated value of the gold to £6.8 billion.

A parallel strand of the investigation is looking into alleged attempts to profit from a sudden rise in the share price of Jeil Steel. The firm’s shares leapt 30 percent the day the discovery of the wreck was announced because a former head of Shinil Group had become the second-largest shareholder in the steel firm. The price collapsed the following day after Jeil Steel said it was not involved in the recovery project.

The 1883 Dmitrii Donskoi was designed as a commerce raider and fitted with both a full set of sails and a coal-fired engine

Mr Yu, who set up the Donskoi International Exchange crypto currency, has previously been convicted of real estate fraud, the JoongAng Daily reported, and is understood to be in Vietnam. Another source told the paper that Mr Yu uses several false identities.

The newspaper reported that authorities were investigating allegations that the company encouraged investors to buy the cryptocurrency by claiming they would be reimbursed with gold recovered from the ship the Dmitrii Donskoi.

Launched in St Petersburg in August 1883, the Dmitrii Donskoi was designed as a commerce raider and fitted with both a full set of sails and a coal-fired engine.

The ship spent most of its career operating in the Mediterranean and the Far East and was deployed to Imperial Russia’s Second Pacific Squadron after the Japanese fleet destroyed the majority of Russia’s naval power in the Far East in the opening salvoes of the 1904 Russo-Japanese War.

The squadron was intercepted by the Japanese fleet in May 1905 and decimated at the Battle of Tsushima. Assigned to protect the transport ships at the rear of the formation, the Dmitrii Donskoi managed to evade the attacking force, but was later intercepted steaming for the Russian port of Vladivostok.

Around 60 of the 591 crew were killed and further 120 injured before Captain Ivan Lebedev anchored off the island of Ulleungdo and ordered his men ashore. The following morning, May 29, 1905, the ship was scuttled offshore and the crew were taken prisoner by Japanese landing parties. Captain Lebedev later died of his wounds.